Tag Archives: Brain Pickings

Hello, all. I made it. Apparently life has decided to resist happening, today. Speaking of which, I hope those of you hit by Jonas, in the eastern United States, are digging yourselves out. Having missed a couple of weeks worth of links, let’s get to it

Having missed a couple of weeks worth of links, let’s get to it:

1] If you have not come across the collection of essays that are Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings then you need to check it out. I am giving you a link to tell you what it’s about and a link to what she thinks are the best picks of the year.

If you want the quick what it’s about, Popova describes Brain Pickings as a cross-disciplinary LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces spanning art, science, psychology, design, philosophy, history, politics, anthropology and …how these different disciplines illuminate one another to glean some insight, directly or indirectly, into that grand question of how to live, and how to live well.

If you have nothing else to expand your brain with [see under ‘life happens’], Pickings will give you some of everything and all connected to our creative selves.

2] From an article in The New Yorker, by Pauline Bock: they first had the idea for the machines one afternoon in 2013. They were taking a break in the hall of their office building, buying a snack from a vending machine. One of them—they don’t recall which one—said that the vending machines should offer short stories instead of drinks and candy. They had a prototype by 2014. Sounds like science fiction, no? No. ViV, we expect you to go to Grenoble and report on this! Read the article and you will be charmed while wondering why your city doesn’t have such a machine. How about one that offers poems? It has to be easier.